Doctors deserve special treatment –NMA chieftain

Immediate past Chairman of Nigerian Medical Association in Cross River State, Dr. Ofem Enang, in this interview with Mudiaga Affe speaks on the ongoing nationwide strike by doctors in the public sector.
why do doctors usually resort to strike in Nigeria?
In other parts of the world, doctors don’t have to threaten the government with strike before they act. Doctors in the United Kingdom last went on strike 37 years ago under the National Health Trust. In the UK, the government recognises that doctors should be treated specially. Doctors are not paid like civil servants, they are paid for job done and that is why they do not threaten to go on strike. Now, everybody on the street is blaming doctors for going on strike but they have forgotten that the doctor has a responsibility both to himself and the society.In those developed climes, the moment you are recognised as a doctor, you can be given anything that you want. We have always done our jobs conscientiously in Nigeria but we have not been treated well. If you agree that something is so important, you have to give it that importance it deserves. In the United States, doctors do go on strike but it does not take long for those issues to be resolved. The current strike is to bring everything to the fore once and for all, we want a clear job description. The salient truth here is that when the patient goes to the hospital, he goes to see the doctor.

Shouldn’t doctors consider the plight of their patients before embarking on incessant strikes?
We have always given priority to the plight of our patients before doing anything and that was the reason why the notice was given. We also know that it is for the same purpose of putting our patients first that we have been relegated to where we are now. The patient’s angle is just blackmail. A sad doctoris a danger to his patients. If the doctors are so important, then it should be the reason why attempts should be made to resolve the contentious issues before they degenerate to strike. It must be noted that in the hospital, every other person’s’ job depends on what the doctor does. Let us stop playing politics with issues like this.

Are there no other ways to resolve the issue apart from going on strike?
Of course, there is a way around strike, and the way to go about it is dialogue. However, you would have noticed that consistently and constantly, government has failed to employ proper dialogue. For instance, the NMA did not go on strike whimsically, it gave notice of a warning strike and another notice two weeks’ notice. Unfortunately, that latitude was taken for granted, that was why NMA came back together and said the issues that were contentious, for which we called off the strike because of the poor masses, are still lingering. Ordinarily you would expect that when a 14-day ultimatum was given, it should be enough to address issues threatening the lives of people, but it was still not taken seriously. We should ask ourselves why, whenever ultimatums are given, in this case 14 days, nobody talks to you, but by the 15th day when the strike commences, you are called to a meeting. It is a case of everybody understands the language of the jungle, which is very unfortunate.

But between you and I, who is responsible for that state of affairs?
Again, when the negotiation starts, government is usually not sincere. Many blame doctors for embarking on strike without considering the Hippocratic oath and we laugh. Anybody who knows the original Hippocratic oath knows that it says at the end of it that, “for all the things that you are required to do as a doctor (responsibilities to his/her patients and the society) may he/she enjoy the good life.”What do you mean by that?What I am trying to say is that we are all playing the ostrich. The doctors’ demands, which include the creation of the office of a Surgeon-General of the Federation; reviewing doctors’ salary scale to reflect relativity in international best practices; reserving the position of the Chief Medical Director of a federal hospital exclusively for medical doctors and reversal of the appointment of paramedics as consultants are not out of the blues. Now the doctors have been on strike, I do not think patients have the need to visit the hospital to see a nurse, physiotherapist or medical laboratory scientist for medication or treatment. They are probably waiting to see a doctor, yet people say we (doctors) are not important and we are unreasonable set of persons who just jump to strike. What they do not know is that everybody is a patient, even the doctors that are on strike are also patients. We are all at risk now because people do not want to tell the truth.

Every profession is important, but why do we call others allied profession to medicine?
It is so because the doctor is about the patient and the patient is about the hospital. The man who has an overview of everything that goes on with the patient is the doctor. He is trained to prevent, diagnose and to treat. Diagnosis is nothing without treatment. So, what is the argument about? Click the internet to find out the highest paid professionals in the health sector, it is the doctor. Is that something we should still be debating? There is no way you will expect me to earn the same wages with others in the allied profession. Again, there is the issue of consultants. As it relates to the hospital, the only person who is referred to as the consultant is the highest ranking medical doctor who has undergone years of specialist training in a particular discipline.In other climes, who prescribes for patients? It is the doctor. This dispute is to save our profession and the health care system from chaos. A laboratory scientist is trained to perform investigations and it is the doctor that will interpret that investigation. Now that doctors are on strike, nobody can investigate anything on their own. We are all important under the same circumstance, though, we should respect each other.

Could these issues have been resolved without going on strike?
The simple answer to this is; let us go and clearly define the job descriptions of every worker in the hospital. So long as we continue to play the ostrich, we will continue to have this kind of situation. Why is everybody now worried? It is only because it has gotten to this point of blackmail from other professionals. A mandate has been given to the current leadership of the NMA to resolve the fundamental issues that border on the medical profession in Nigeria. We are going to do it together. Nobody can trample on us. If someone chooses the allied courses, then they should stand where they are. Let us all stay and be dedicated to the profession that we have chosen to practise under the law. Have you asked yourself why suddenly, other health professionals came together under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Union- a coalition of allied health professionals/paramedics two years ago? They did this to pull the doctors down. How come the doctor is now an orphan in the hospital setting for whom he/she is the arrowhead. You cannot turn a doctor to an orphan in the hospital setting. These people who are heady over our demands are the same people who travel outside abroad to see doctors. Ask them if they have ever gone out to see a consultant pharmacist or consultant laboratory scientist in those hospitals for medical treatment.